A combined XI from promoted & relegated clubs that could achieve Premier League survival
There are serious questions to be asked about the growing chasm between the Premier League and the Championship after all three promoted clubs have sunk like a stone for the second season running.
Leeds United and Burnley have bounced back to the top flight and are both just one game away from reaching 100 points. But will they end up suffering the same fate as Leicester City, Ipswich Town and Southampton next season?
It’s now harder than ever to stay in the Premier League, and the promoted clubs will really have their work cut out this summer. The gap got us thinking – would an XI of all the best players from the promoted and relegated clubs even survive?
Here’s a full combined XI from this year’s promoted and relegated clubs. What do you reckon – would this team stay up in the Premier League?
GK: James Trafford
It’s arguably a bold shout to pick a ‘keeper whose only prior Premier League experience was a bit of a disaster over Aaron Ramsdale, who was starting for a Premier League title-chasing side only a couple of years back. But bear with us.
Vincent Kompany threw Trafford into the deep end in the Clarets’ underwhelming 2023-24 campaign. He’d been outstanding at youth level for England, but there was a sense that season was one step too soon.
Still, it was invaluable experience and his confidence doesn’t appear to have been knocked. Now he looks ready for another go at it, having saved Burnley countless points in their promotion charge. Twenty-nine clean sheets and just 15 goals conceded from 44 outings tells you everything you need to know.
We’d be amazed if Ramsdale is still ahead of Trafford in Thomas Tuchel’s Three Lions pecking order come next summer’s World Cup. Burnley will do well to hold onto their rising star, given Newcastle United’s reported interest.
RB: Kyle Walker-Peters
It’s been a miserable season for Southampton, who have looked miles off it and at times looked in danger of challenging Derby County’s infamous record.
In Walker-Peters they boast a right-back who’s proven and dependable at the top-flight level, with almost 150 Premier League appearances under his belt. He’s solid if unspectacular going forward, but more importantly he’s defensively sound.
Another season back in the Championship would be a waste of his ability. You can easily imagine him doing a decent job in a better, more organised team. There’ll surely be suitors.
CB: Maxime Esteve
“He’s too good for the highest level of football. It’s almost like it’s still too easy for him,” Jamie Carragher said of Virgil van Dijk earlier this season.
“It almost feels like there should be another level above that for Van Dijk because he plays the game with such ease.”
That’s kind of how it feels watching Esteve play second-tier football. In his case, there is another level above, and it’ll be interesting to see how he fares back in the Premier League.
The French defender has made Championship football look like child’s play after his loan from Montpellier was made permanent last summer.
CB: CJ Egan-Riley
It feels harsh leaving out Joe Rodon, who has been a supremely solid leader at the back for Daniel Farke’s Leeds as they close in on 195 across two seasons under Daniel Farke.
The Wales international has earned a proper shot at the Premier League after barely getting a look-in at Tottenham.
But we just couldn’t break up that Burnley triumvirate. Another Manchester City academy graduate, 22-year-old Egan-Riley was outstanding for Scott Parker’s Burnley as they close in on 100 points after smashing all kinds of defensive records.
LB: Junior Firpo
“Yours Truly, the second-best left-back in the league,” Firpo signed off a thank you message to Leeds United fans on Twitter, having been snubbed in the Championship Team of the Season.
It was wild that the Dominican Republic international wasn’t included, given the exceptional season he’s had. Four goals and 10 assists as a left-back is some haul.
He’s actually an interesting test case in the existential crisis between the top two tiers. Admittedly a bit of a bomb scare in his two previous Premier League seasons at Elland Road, he’s since offered a reminder of why Barcelona once saw fit to sign him.
A bit like Leif Davis at Ipswich Town, superb in the Championship but suspect in the Premier League, there are question marks over whether newly-promoted sides can afford to have offensively-minded full-backs bombing forward (a key part of Farke’s successful tactical approach).
Firpo is out of contract in the summer and it might make sense for Leeds to replace Firpo with a more defensively-minded option. But should he stay, a confident and fit Firpo might just prove a few of his doubters wrong.
DM: Ethan Ampadu
Ampadu infamously suffered three relegations with three different clubs during his years in Chelsea’s loan army.
But the Welshman had been served a series of bad hands – Sheffield United, Venezia, Spezia – and has now found a settled home at Leeds, where he serves as club captain.
Arguably their best player across the two seasons under Farke, Ampadu looks a Premier League player ready and waiting. He’s earned a proper shot.
READ: Where are they now? The four players Leeds sold alongside Raphinha in 2022
CM: Ao Tanaka
What a signing.
Picked up from German second-tier outfit Fortuna Dusseldorf for just £2.9million, the Japan international has been an absolute revelation at the heart of Leeds’ midfield this season.
A core reason why Farke’s side somehow went on and improved as a collective after losing star individuals Crysencio Summerville, Georginio Rutter and Archie Gray for a combined £100million+ following last season’s play-off heartbreak.
CM: Tyler Dibling
It’s impossible not to scoff at Southampton’s apparent £100million+ valuation of their teenage prodigy, but Dibling does look a real talent. He has to be special to look good in this rabble of a Saints team.
“He is a beautiful footballer, a really outstanding talent. He’s powerful. He possesses stuff that not every player possesses,” former Southampton manager Russell Martin said earlier this season.
“I love working with him. I love watching him play. I’d pay a lot of money to watch him play football.”
We can’t disagree.
FWR: Dan James
Still Manchester United’s seventh-most expensive sale in history, a rare beast they actually made a profit on. James didn’t exactly pull up any trees at Old Trafford, but his time there now looks a little better in comparison to big-money flops like Jadon Sancho and Anthony.
Subsequent years saw him drift a bit, struggling as a centre-forward in Marcelo Bielsa’s injury-ravaged final season at Leeds before a season on the peripheral out on loan at Fulham. The rapid winger has kicked since returning to his parent club after they fell to the Championship.
James’ speed alone makes him something of a cheat code in the second tier, but he’s also added composure, better decision-making and finishing to his game.
Time will tell whether he belongs in that ‘too good for the Championship, not good enough for the Premier League’ zone alongside Robert Earnshaw, Dwight Gayle and Adam Armstrong, but it certainly feels as though he’s developed into a better footballer. You can imagine him being a real asset in the right set-up.
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ST: Liam Delap
You only need to look at the calibre of clubs that are reportedly chasing the strapping centre-forward’s signature to know that his future is unlikely to lie scrapping in the muck of a relegation battle, let alone the Championship.
Ipswich signed Delap for just £20million and they’ll make a healthy enough profit when someone inevitably triggers his reported £30million release clause in the coming weeks. Manchester United, Chelsea and Newcastle are among those linked.
FWL: Stephy Mavididi
With seven promoted players and just three relegated players in this XI so far, here’s an attempt to redress the balance away from recency bias.
It’s easy to write Mavididi off given Leicester City’s dismal bid to remain in the Premier League. But just 12 months ago he was considered a brilliant footballer, having notched 12 goals and six assists as Enzo Maresca’s Foxes relentlessly marched back to the top flight.
He hasn’t set the world alight under Ruud van Nistelrooy – but who has? Footballers don’t turn rubbish overnight. Get Mavididi back in a team that offers him a platform, and he’ll show you what he can offer.
